Money counting machine



ept- 10, 1957 T. E. HAYES 2,805,858

MONEY COUNTING MACHINE Filed July 20, 1955 INVENTOR [km/M9170 as" ATTORNEYS MGNEY COUNTWG MACHHNE Thomas E. Hayes, Washington, D. C.

Application July 20, 1955, Serial No. 523,333

6 Claims. (Cl. 271-74) This invention relates to paper money sorting and counting machines of the type disclosed in U. S. Patents Nos. 2,271,394 and 2,429,159 and more particularly to such machines having improved means for controlling the movement of bills into and through the machine.

These prior patents disclose machines having a plurality of compartments to receive paper money as it is sorted, with means at each compartment for feeding in the bills and for counting the pieces as they are fed. There is also a totalizer which registers the total number of pieces fed into the machine. As the bills enter the compartments, they drop upon shelves where they remain until the count of a particular strap is completed. After the count is checked and found to be correct, the shelves are dumped and the bills drop into storage compartments below.

The bills are fed into the machine at high speed which gives them considerable impetus. Usually the bills fly back and strike the rear of the compartment, which stops their horizontal travel, and then drop onto the shelf below. Even though the feed rollers are shaped to curve the bills transversely to stifien them, sometimes, particularly where a bill is limp or has been folded, the rearward momentum is suificient to cause the bill to crumple or to double over and drop in that condition on the shelf. The money on the shelves is dumped into the compartments below by a downward swing of the shelves. The shelves drop very rapidly, and the bottom bill of the stack will frequently cling to one of the shelves as it swings downwardly. This causes the bill to be turned on its edge, and when the shelf reaches its downward vertical position the bill will slide oif and fall edgewise along side the stack in the compartment below. These nonconforming actions of the bills have caused some difficulty in operation, as it is important that all bills lie flat and fully extended in the pile upon the shelf and subsequently in the storage compartment.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide means associated with the bill feed to ensure a quick, flat drop of the bill into the compartment and a flat drop of stacks of accumulated bills into the storage compartment.

Another object is to provide means to change the direction of movement of the bills in flight after leaving the feed means, to ensure a quick and flat drop of the bills to prevent them from folding over in flight.

A more specific object is to provide means to direct a force against the bill immediately after leaving the feed means, which force will be directed at an angle to the path of flight of the bill, to check the momentum of the bill and change its flight pattern and prevent the leading edge from turning ack- Still another object is to provide means to prevent the accumulating shelves from disassociating the bottom bill from a stack during dumping action, to ensure the bottom bill dropping in proper position with the stack.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of one practical embodi- "ice ment thereof, when taken in conjunction with the drawings which accompany, and form part of, this specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a vertical transverse, section through a paper money sorting and counting machine embodying the improvement of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a vertical, longitudinal section through the machine, and is taken substantially on the line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a pair of bill accumulating shelves used in the machine; and

Figure 4 is a partial diagrammatic view illustrating one method of connecting the present improvement into the operating circuit for the machine.

Reference may be had to the patents mentioned above for details of the construction, arrangement and operation of the basic machine. Only those portions necessary to a disclosure of the present improvement have been shown herein.

Referring to the drawings in detail, there is shown a cabinet 1, in which a plurality of vertical partitions 2 are arranged in parallel, spaced relation against a back wall 3, to form a series of compartments 4. Each compartment has a horizontal cross-section of approximately the same shape as, and slightly larger than, a bill, each compartment to receive bills according to a predetermined sorting arrangement. A plurality of pairs of bill-feeding rollers are arranged, one pair at the upper forward end of each compartment. The lower rollers 5 are driven rollers, and the upper rollers 6 are caused to rotate by the passage of a bill between the rollers. A shelf '7 extends horizontally in front of the series of compartments and has its upper surface at about the level of the line of contact between the rollers. The compartments 4 are divided vertically near the top by a pair of horizontal shelves 8 which are hinged from the partitions 2 with their free longitudinal edges meeting at the center line of the compartment. When bills are fed into the compartments, they accumulate upon the shelves 8 until all of the bills in a strap have been sorted and the count verifled, at which time the bills are dumped into the lower or storage portion of the compartment.

Patent No. 2,429,159 discloses the means by which the shelves 8 are dumped, the control mechanism which stops the machine when the totalizer reaches the th bill, and the means by which the machine is restarted when the shelves return to horizontal position.

Referring again to the feed rollers, the upper roller 6 is mounted upon a tilting support 9 which carries in its free end an adjusting screw 10 which operates a microswitch 11 when the roller 6 is lifted by the passage of the bill between the rollers. The microswitch controls a number of circuits, one of which causes the actuation of a piece-counter 12 associated with the compartment to which the switch belongs and, through the piece-counter, the actuation of a totalizer 13 (shown only diagrammatically in Figure 3). The piece-counter and totalizer are of conventional form, such as is shown in the patent to Veider No. 1,480,738.

The front shelves 7 are slightly concave in a transverse direction, which, along with the fact that the outer flanges of the rollers 6 are of somewhat larger diameter than the middle of the rollers, causes the bills fed to the machine to assume a trough-like shape, stifiening the bills so that they will shoot through the rollers in a shaperetaining condition, tending to cause the bills to stack themselves in the compartment full length. As mentioned previously, however, some bills will fold, or otherwise fall improperly upon the shelf.

To ensure all of the bills falling flat, an air system is provided to supply jets of air to strike the bills as they emerge from the rollers to cause them to remain extended and descend immediately to the stack below. The air system includes a manifold 14 which extends across all of the compartments and is attached to the cabinet just above, and to the rear of the feed rollers. Air under pressure from any suitable source is supplied to the manifold through a pipe 15. A. solenoid operated valve 16 controls admission of air to the manifold. Centrally of each compartment, an air nozzle 17 is connected into the manifold, pointed downwardly to direct jet angularly toward a bill emerging from the feed rollers. Thus, as the bill emerges from the rollers an air stream will be directed downwardly upon it at an angle to its direction of travel. This not only serves to force the bill down, but at the same time prevents any possibility of the bill folding back upon itself, which is likely to occur if the bill has been previously folded. The air pressure also tends to balance the bill to prevent it turning on end or on its edge.

It will be evident that the several air nozzles could be independently operated in response to operation of the individual rnicroswitches, or that all jets could work simultaneously under the control of any of several of the instrumentalities of the machine.

For purposes of illustration, the jets are shown as being operated together in response to operation of the totalizer. As the totalizer is operated each time a bill is inserted in any of the compartments, this provides a convenient method of control. Figure 4 shows a part of the control circuit disclosed in Patent No. 2,429,159, including the total: izer 13. The totalizer includes coils 17, pole-pieces 18 and armature 19 which rotate when the coils are energized. As defined in the previous patent, when a piececounter is energized it closes a circuit through the coils of the totalizer. When the totalizer armature moves a switch 29 is closed, energizing a holding relay 21 which allows the piece-counters and totalizer to return to inoperative position and preventing re-operation until the bill has passed completely through the feed rollers. A second switch 22 may be provided to be operated when the totalizer is operated. The points of this switch may be connected by lines 23 and 24 to the negative line 25 and positive line 26. The coil 27 of the solenoid in valve 16 may be connected in either wire 23 or 24 so that when the totalizer operates the valve 16 will be opened to admit air to the manifold. Although the totalizer may complete its cycle of operation prior to the trailing edge of the bill leaving the feed rollers, the mechanical lag in the air valve will be such that the jet will operate in the proper sequence.

In order to ensure the stacked, flat bills upon the shelves dropping in that manner from the shelves into the com partments below, the shelves will be made perforate over their entire areas to break the vacuum that would otherwise be formed adjacent the top side of the shelves as they swing rapidly to their dumping position. may be of expanded metal, or cut out in any desired fashion. Experiment has shown that approximately fifty per cent of the shelf area should be open. The arrangement shown consists of a great many closely spaced openings 28 over the entire shelf. When shelves constructed in this manner are quickly dumped, air will pass through the openings preventing the formation of a vacuum. There will be no pull on the under bill, therefore, to move it from its horizontal position.

It will be seen that the present improvement provides, means to prevent bills from doubling back upon themselves, crumpling or turning in flight to fall endwise or The shelves lsidewise. All bills will be maintained in flat condition during flight and will be stacked in that condition in the lower compartments.

While in the above one practical embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be understood that the details of construction shown and described are merely by way of illustration and the invention may take other forms within the scope of the appended claims.

, What is claimed is:

1. In a machine for sorting and counting'paper money having a plurality of bill-receiving compartments, separable bill-feeding means associated with each compartment near the upper front end thereof for feeding bills horizontally into said compartment, bill-accumulating shelves in said compartments to receive bills fed therein by said bill-feeding means and separating said compartments into upper bill-accumulating chambers and lower bill-storage chambers, said shelves being pivotally mounted for dumping movement, the combination with an air manifold extending across all of said compartments above and to the rear of said bill-feeding means, nozzles on said 'manifold for directing air under pressure downwardly and rearwardly into said upper chambers, one nozzle being provided for each compartment, and means for controlling admission of compressed air to said manifold.

2. In a machine for sorting and counting paper money as claimed in claim 1, said nozzles being arranged one centrally of each compartment and having their outlet ends above the plane of travel of bills emerging from said bill-feeding means.

3. In a machine for sorting and counting paper money as claimed in claim 1, said means for controlling admission of air to said manifold being timed to admit air upon the emergence of a bill from said bill feeding means.

4. In a machine for sorting and counting paper money as claimed in claim 1, said nozzles being arranged one centrally of each compartment and having their outlet ends above the plane of travel of bills emerging from said billfeeding means and said means for controlling admission of air to said manifold being timed to admit air upon the emergence of a bill from said bill feeding means.

5. In a machine for sorting and counting paper money as claimed in claim 1, said bill accumulating shelves being perforate to permit air to pass through the shelves during dumping movement.

6. In a machine for sorting and counting paper money having a plurality of bill-receiving compartments, separable bill-feeding means associated with each compartment near the upper end thereof, bill-accumulating shelves in said compartments to receive bills fed therein by said bill-feeding means and separating said compartments into upper bill-accumulating chambers and lower bill-storage chambers, said shelves being pivotally mounted for door:- ing movement, the improvement which consists in having said bill-accumulating shelves perforate to permit air to pass through the shelves during dumping movement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 958,230 Cowley May 17, 1910 1,902,436 Joachim Mar. 21, 1933 2,256,327 Parkes Sept. 16, 1941 2,299,259 Sites Oct. 20, 1942 2,486,196 Nebolsine Oct. 25, 1949 2,572,980 Bradford Oct. 30, 1951 2,645,480 Long July 14, 1953 2,723,606 Brockhardt Nov. 15, 1955 

